StoryMill User Guide Copyright 2011. All rights reserved. Mariner Write, Mariner, WinJournal, Montage, Desktop Poet, Contour and Mariner Paperless are registered trademarks of Mariner Software, Inc. All other trademarks are the property of their respective owners.
Table of Contents Section 1: First Encounters with StoryMill! Chapter 1: StoryMill Basics! 4 5 The central metaphor! 6 The main project window and general terms! 8 Adding and removing items! 11 Editing items! 12 Annotations! 14 Adding and managing views! 15 Searching! 16 Chapter 2: Views, Chapters, Timelines, Tags! 17 Working with views! 18 Working with chapters! 22 Editing in the project window! 24 Timelines! 26 Storylines! 27 Editing scenes in the timeline! 28 Events! 30 Ta
Styles! 38 Spellchecking, find and replace! 39 Splitting windows! 40 Conversion utilities! 41 Chapter 4: Exporting Your Work! 42 Exporting basics! 43 Export templates! 44 Using export template keywords! 45 Keywords reference! 46 Document templates! 51 Custom document templates! 52 Chapter 5: Tools! 53 Snapshots! 54 Using snapshots! 55 Word frequency! 56 Highlight Clichés! 57 Progress meter! 58 Window fading! 59 Chapter 6: Preferences! 60 General preferences! 61 Editor
Section 1: First Encounters with StoryMill Learn the basics that youʼll need to start writing.
Chapter 1: StoryMill Basics In this chapter: Welcome to StoryMill! Part word processor, part database, StoryMill 4.0 provides every author with the tools essential to writing a best seller: everything from project-wide annotations to centuries-spanning timelines.
The central metaphor Before you can effectively make use of StoryMill, you need to understand the concepts it is organized around. StoryMill takes scenes as the basic building blocks of writing. A scene is a smaller part of the overall story that may be demarcated by time, setting, or content.
In addition to the narrative flow of scenes-within-chapters-withinnovel, StoryMill allows you to examine the chronological flow of your project using timelines. Because you can view scenes both in the order they fall in the narrative as well as the order they fall in time, scenes are a powerful way to organize your project. For some people or writing projects, the concept of scenes as building blocks for chapters may not make much sense.
The main project window and general terms The project window is where youʼll be spending most of your time in StoryMill. Each “project”, be it a short story, a paper for your English class, or a novel, is saved as an all-in-one document, and each has its own project window. Toolbar: The standard Mac OS X toolbar. Source List: The source list contains all of the items that make up your StoryMill project, organized in a sensible hierarchy.
# The source list lets you sort individual items, simply by dragging them around. An itemʼs status is represented in the source list by a colored circle to its right. You can also assign it a status in its individual item view (shown at right), comprised of a header bar, content pane, metadata pane, and status bar. continued from above Header Bar: This bar displays the icon of your selected item, its title, and its status.
Since your project is made up of items organized into containers in the source list, StoryMill provides you with the following views: • Novel, which contains the entire narrative text of your project and is made up of chapters and scenes • Characters, which are the actors in your project • Scenes, which can have characters, locations and timelines associated with them • Locations, which are the different settings in your project • Tasks, an example of a generic item view - a catch-all that can be used for n
Adding and removing items StoryMillʼs items have a diverse amount of information attached to them, but how you add and remove them is always the same. To add an item, click the Insert button in the toolbar. You may also choose Edit→Insert Item or use the hotkey ⇧⌘N. If you have a container highlighted, the new item will be inserted at the bottom of its items list. If you are already working in a item list, your new item will be inserted immediately underneath the one currently highlighted.
Editing items Editing items should be fairly straight-forward, particularly if youʼve used Cocoa applications in the past. First, click the item you wish to edit in the item list. To change its name, simply slow double click it. Edit its text or notes in the content pane, and modify its metadata using the metadata pane. You can also use the status drop-down in the header bar to assign it a new status.
Like the project window, all item editing windows have a content pane (for text, pictures and/or notes) and a metadata pane - with pictures, tags, and links common to all items. Pictures can be added independently of your notes, and the links pane allows you to link a file on your computer or a web URL to your item. Tags are single words or phrases that you can use with smart views for very powerful filtering and organizing (see Tags, p. 31).
Annotations An annotation is a comment attached to a specific piece of text. In StoryMill, you can add annotations to any rich text (such as notes areas and chapters, but not plain text inputs like item names). Like all other extended pieces of text in StoryMill, annotations can contain richly formatted text, images, and more. To add an annotation: Select some text. Click the annotate button in the toolbar, choose Text→Annotate, or hit ⌘D.
Adding and managing views By default, new projects in StoryMill do not have all views (which views are included depends on which template you use to create the new document; see Document templates, p. 51). To manage your views use the buttons at the bottom of the source list: Tip: Remember that to remove a container view, you need to use the gear button at the bottom of the screen.
Searching In addition to filtering views using smart views and temporary filters, you can enable a project-wide search by using the search bar, located by default at the far right of the project window toolbar: Search bar Entering a search will launch a new window that displays a collapsible list of results, sorted by view in the same order as your source list.
Chapter 2: Views, Chapters, Timelines, Tags In this chapter: Using the information from Chapter 1, you should have a grasp on the basics of using StoryMillʼs views and items. However, there are four specific features that form StoryMillʼs core that deserve a more in-depth look: views, editing, timelines, and tags. All of these features were touched on in Chapter 1, but hereʼs a quick run-down: Scenes are the basic building blocks for everything written in StoryMill.
Working with views Each item container in the source list by default has a container description view (scenes container view shown at right) that allows you to add a new item, manage tags, and in the case of scenes and scenes-based smart views, see all the your viewsʼ items as part of a timeline.
If you need to add information to multiple scenes at one time, you can use the contextual menu (shown at right). Select from the source list the scenes you want to modify with shift-click or command-click and right click them (or control-click for single button mice). From the contextual menu you can add tags, set statuses, open an attached character or location in its item editing window, open the chapter that contains the scenes, and more.
• Notes: your ideas and thoughts on your item. • Pictures: any images you have associated with your item. • Tags: any filters or organizing themes (see Tags, p.31). • Links: links to web URLs or desktop files for reference purposes. • Scenes: a list of scenes included in or associated with your item. • Locations: a list of locations defined for the scenes included in or associated with your item. • Characters: a list of all characters in your item.
The individual scene viewʼs unique metadata pane (shown at right) is worth a closer look: Fields such as chapter, storyline, and location with the small up and down arrows in their corner are drop-downs; click anywhere in the field to open the drop-down and select your desired value. Choose a start and end date by clicking on the calendar icon to choose a specific date from the date picker (such as Aug 10, 1747).
Working with chapters There are two places to edit chapters: the project window and the item editing window. In the project window, you can toggle open the novel view using the arrow to its left and click on individual chapters for the single chapter view. You can then toggle open individual chapters in the same way to see the single scene view. The chapters list in the novel view is best for setting statuses or sorting your chapters.
Zoom level Cursor location Approximate page count Word count Character count The cursor location is the name of the scene (or chapter) that the cursor is currently located in; the others should be self-explanatory. In order to help you distinguish between scenes, alternating scenes have a light background color (shown at right). Although the top half of the split-screen window contains the chapterʼs text, chapters still have notes. The chapterʼs notes are available in the metadata pane.
Editing in the project window The project windowʼs source list is a useful tool for navigating between novel view, single chapter views, and single scene views to see the text of your project in context. The project window also offers a number of features that make text editing easy. Most of the unique features of the project window (as opposed to an individual item editing window) can be found in its toolbar. • Save: This opens a standard save dialog. Alternatively, choose File→Save As or hit ⇧⌘S.
(continued from previous page) • Progress Meter: The progress meter allows you to to track your progress during a single writing session or on your entire project (see Progress meter, p. 58). • Annotate: The Annotate button allows you to control annotations (see Annotations, p. 14). Tips: - You can use the full screen for any item! - Color and margins in the full screen are controlled in the preferences! See Full screen preferences, p. 63. • Jump To...: Use the Jump To....
Timelines Your scenes view, and any smart view based off your scenes view, can be viewed as a timeline. To open a timeline of your active view, click the Timeline toolbar button in the project window (shown at right), or choose Tools→Timeline. The timeline window has unique ways of allowing you to manage its content: Timeline button Storylines: storylines group scenes horizontally so you can see the relationship between them.
Storylines The timeline shows the chronological order of your scenes (regardless of narrative order). Within the broader timeline, you can then group scenes into storylines. This allows you to logically group scenes which would otherwise overlap: You can change or assign a sceneʼs storyline,by visiting the metadata pane in the sceneʼs view window, or by editing the scene in the timeline view. To add and remove storylines, use the + and - buttons at the bottom of the storyline pane.
Editing scenes in the timeline You can easily tell which timeline areas have scenes assigned to them: those with scenes will show a gray background, while those without any scenes will show a red background. Hover over a scene to see its start and end date and full name in a tooltip (shown at right). To change information about the scene, click on the info icon at its bottom right to launch its timeline window, allowing you to edit its time and date and assign it to a storyline.
Often, scenes take place over a similar timespan, and will be grouped together in your timeline view. In this case, each groupʼs bar will display the number of scenes in the group, the name of the groupʼs first and last scene chronologically, separated by an ellipsis, and the time period the scenes take place in.
Events An event in the timeline is something that happens at a single point in time but that may affect scenes across storylines. For instance, in Treasure Island by Robert Louis Stevenson, the first man killed on Skeleton Island by the pirates affects Jim Hawkinsʼ storyline (because he witnesses it) and also affects Dr. Liveseyʼs storyline (because he and the people with him hear the man die).
Tags Tags are short words or phrases that provide a flexible way to attach metadata to items in StoryMill. If the metadata, such as name and status, that StoryMill provides is enough for your project, then you never have to use tags. However, if you want to be able to filter views based on custom metadata, youʼll need to use tags.
Smart views Smart views are very similar to smart folders in the Finder and smart playlists in iTunes. Although you can create smart views based off a number of different pieces of metadata (the specific metadata depends on the type of item), using smart views together with tags is often the most efficient way to filter your items. Click the + button to add a new smart view or choose Add Smart View… from the gear button at the bottom of the source list.
Add another rule with the + button. Repeat the steps above to complete your rules. You can choose to match either all of the rules or any of the rules using the drop down at the top of the window. To add or remove a rule from the list, simply click the + or - button at its right. As you add and remove rules, the project windowʼs item list will update. You can move the smart view rules window off to the side to see in real time what items your smart view will contain.
Trial version and registration You should now be well prepared to jump into StoryMill and start writing! Although there are many small details and useful features within StoryMill left to explore, you should hopefully have a good feeling for the basic interface and how to use some of the most important advanced features. The StoryMill trial version is completely functional (no features are crippled) and allows you to launch the program 30 times before expiring.
Section 2: Working with StoryMill Discover some of StoryMillʼs more advanced features
Chapter 3: Advanced Text Editing In this chapter: If you are familiar with other programs that use the default Cocoa text editing features (such as the ruler, styles, etc.), then you should feel right at home in StoryMill. Alongside the default Cocoa text editing controls, StoryMill also provides a number of useful features that make advanced text editing easier.
The ruler By default, the ruler is on in every text view. If the ruler is on but your cursor is not inside the text view, youʼll see the mini ruler: Tip: You can insert hyperlinks in your text! Drag and drop links from your browser, or highlight text and choose Text→Add Link to assign the link manually (or Text→Edit Link to edit linked text). If the ruler is off, you can click inside the text view and choose Text→Show Ruler or hit ⌃⌘R.
Styles Although Cocoaʼs styling support is limited, you can use the Styles drop-down in the ruler to assign styles that you often use to your text. Most people wonʼt need to worry about styles, however, since you can set your default styling for text views in the preferences (see Editor preferences, p. 62). Select text and choose a style from the drop-down to set text to a predefined style. To define a new style: Format some text. Select it. Choose Styles→Other… in the ruler. Choose Add To Favorites.
Spellchecking, find and replace StoryMill uses the default Cocoa spellchecking for all of its text views. Choose Edit→Spelling→Check Spelling While Typing to have misspelled words underlined in red as you type. Additionally, you may opt to spellcheck manually. Choose Edit→Spelling→Show Spelling and Grammar or hit ⌘: to open the spellchecking window (shown at right). Use this window to find suggestions for your misspelled words.
Splitting windows If you are working in a content pane, you can split your text view to both edit and reference the item at the same time. With an editing window open, choose View→Split Horizontally or View→Split Vertically. Drag the bar between the splits to resize them to your liking. Choose View→Unsplit to remove the split.
Conversion utilities StoryMill provides a number of different text conversion utilities to make what would otherwise be tedious tasks quick and simple. You can find these utilities in Text→Convert (shown at right). To use one of the conversion utilities, first select the text you wish to convert, and then choose the appropriate utility from the Text menu. • To UPPER CASE: Selected text will be converted to all uppercase characters.
Chapter 4: Exporting Your Work In this chapter: StoryMill provides most basic text formatting that youʼll need while writing, but for advanced text editing features such as margins, headers/footers, and footnotes, youʼll need to export your text and work in another environment, such as a word processor. Before youʼve finished your project you may want to print all of the information youʼve entered so you can go over it by hand.
Exporting basics To export anything out of your project, first choose File→Export…. The exporting window will open (shown at right). The pane on the left contains the available export templates. When you select an export template, the area on the right will be filled with a preview of what your exported text will look like. Once you have the template that you want, select what kind of document youʼd like to export to using the drop-down in the lower right of the window and click the Export button.
Export templates You can edit your export templates from the export window. Once youʼve chosen File→Export… either select a current template or click the + button at the bottom left to add a new template: Tip: If you double click the name of a template other than the highlighted template, you may need to wait until the preview has been generated before you can edit it (the amount of time will vary based on the size of the text to be exported and the speed of your computer).
Using export template keywords Keywords in export templates may initially look very strange, but theyʼre actually quite easy to use! There are two types of keywords: • $keywords$ (dollar sign keywords): Keywords that start and end with a dollar sign tell the template which view youʼre working with Tip: Remember that keywords are case-specific! Where there are two words not separated by an underline character, the second word will always be capitalized.
Keywords reference Here is a complete reference to all keywords available within StoryMillʼs export templates.
Document keywords (to be used outside of view selectors) Keyword Output Keyword Output %title% The projectʼs title %views% Names of all views %storyLines% All storylines in the projectʼs timeline %events% All events in the projectʼs timeline Keyword Output Keyword Output %name% The itemʼs name %creationDate% The date the item was created %notes% The itemʼs notes %lastModifiedDate% The date the item was last modified %status% The itemʼs status %tags% The itemʼs tags (listed with ca
Scenes-specific keywords Keyword Output Keyword Output %text% The sceneʼs text (what shows up in the chapter) %startDate% The sceneʼs start date %storyLine% The storyline for the scene %endDate% The sceneʼs end date Chapters-specific keywords Keyword Output Keyword Output %text% The chapter text %scenesInChapter% A list of all scenes in the chapter (separated by carriage returns) %aggregateText% The chapter and scene text (what you see in the novel view) Actors-specific keywords Keywor
Locations-specific keywords Keyword Output %scenesForLocation% A list of all scenes using the location (separated by carriage returns) Events-specific keywords Keyword Output %startDate% The eventʼs date Submissions-specific keywords Keyword Output Keyword Output %address% The first address line %homepage% The submissionʼs homepage %address2% The second address line %phone% The submissionʼs phone number %city% The addressʼs city %fax% The submissionʼs fax number %state% The addressʼ
Keyword Output Keyword Output %zip% The addressʼs zip code %response% The response you received to the submission %email% The submissionʼs email %agency% The agency you submitted your project to (the name of the submission) Special keywords Keyword Output %page_break% Inserts a page break (useful to separate items) 50 of 66
Document templates Although exporting text from your project is important, sometimes the structure of the project itself is what you want to preserve. To create projects with different structures you can use document templates. By default all new projects use the Novel template. However, StoryMill comes with two other templates or you can create your own (more on that in a bit).
Custom document templates Saving a custom document template is easy. Simply open a StoryMill project, set it up the way you want, and choose File→Save as Template…. You will be prompted to enter your templateʼs name. After you enter the name, the template will be available in the template list. To add, rename, or remove templates, choose File→Manage Templates….
Chapter 5: Tools A big part of writing is revision and other mundane tasks. Whether you need to set a daily word goal, analyze which words you overuse, take a snapshot of your work, or find cliché phrases, StoryMill has you covered. In this chapter: • Snapshots • Word frequency • Highlight clichés • Progress meter • Window fading This chapter will run through the ins and outs of using StoryMillʼs tools to keep the creative juices flowing.
Snapshots StoryMillʼs snapshot tool, available in the standard toolbar or via Tools→Snapshots, allows you to make backup copies of your work before forging ahead with changes to your story. Taking a snapshot of your work is especially helpful if you are about to make experimental additions and edits to your story. You may find that youʼre unhappy with the changes youʼve made; having a snapshot will enable you to compare the two versions of your text and if necessary revert to the earlier one.
Using snapshots StoryMillʼs snapshots window (shown at right) is both easy to use and extremely powerful. When launched, your snapshots window will display a list pane of all the items in your project which have snapshots. Select an item from that list, and use the drop-down snapshot menu to choose a snapshot from the itemʼs snapshot history. You can easily locate particular snapshots in the menu, as they will be identified not only by the names you gave them, but also the time and date you created them.
Word frequency StoryMillʼs word frequency tool, available via Tools→Word Frequency…, allows you to track your most frequently used words in the currently selected item. Word frequency also works with the novel and chapter containers in the source list. To see your most frequently used words, select an item in the source list and choose Tools→Word Frequency… to open the word frequency window (shown at right).
Highlight Clichés The highlight clichés tool does exactly what you would expect it to do: it highlights potentially cliché phrases in the selected text view. To use it, make sure that your cursor is in a text view, and choose Tools→Highlight Clichés. After StoryMill has processed the text, potential clichés and colloquialisms will be highlighted in red: Tip: Highlight Clichés ignores both context and adjacent text when it looks for clichés and colloquialisms.
Progress meter The StoryMill progress meter allows you to track your progress both during a single writing session or on the project as a whole. The project meter by default is available in the standard toolbar: Progress meter The progress meter tracks all text typed in chapters (including scene text). As you near your word goal, the progress meter will fill. When you reach your goal, the progress meter will optionally notify you with an alert sound.
Window fading You may find yourself at times wishing to reference information outside of StoryMill while you write. While you can always use command-tab and so forth to switch to other applications to reference them, StoryMill also provides the option to fade almost any of its windows. Fading causes the window to become highly transparent (just how transparent is configurable in the General preferences; see p. 61).
Chapter 6: Preferences In this chapter: For the most part, the StoryMill preferences should be selfexplanatory. However, if you need to find out specifically what something in the preferences controls, this chapter provides a comprehensive reference for each section of the preferences. To access the preferences, choose StoryMill→Preferences… or hit ⌘, (command-comma).
General preferences • Serial Number: when you buy StoryMill, you can enter your serial number here. • Check for updates on startup: check if you wish to have StoryMill automatically check for updates when you launch the program. • Auto-save documents every [num] minutes: set an auto-save interval, or 0 (zero) to disable auto-saving. • Open at startup: choose whether to open a new document or the last document you had open when you started up StoryMill.
Editor preferences • Show Ruler: check if you want the ruler on by default. Uncheck if you want to manually show the ruler. • Check Spelling as You Type: check this to have StoryMill always check your spelling as you type. • Enable Smart Quote Substitution: check this to have StoryMill convert straight quotes to smart (sometimes called curly) quotes.
Full Screen preferences • Automatically determine full screen margin: check this to have StoryMill automatically calculate the left and right margin around your text in full screen. Uncheck this to set a horizontal margin yourself using the slider. To have your text stretch from one side of your screen all the way to the other, set the horizontal margin percentage to 0. To have the outer 40% of your screen be margin and the center 60% be text, slide the slider all the way to the right.
Status preferences Statuses are used across projects to highlight text and keep track of which scenes and items are in need of work. Click the + button to add a new status (or the - button to remove the selected status). Name your new status. To rename a current status, double click it. Select a color for the status. Drag and drop statuses to reorder them. Tip: Different users find different statuses useful.
Snapshot preferences Check Create Automatic Snapshots for Statuses to have StoryMill automatically take a snapshot of your text when you assign it a status. Choose which status to take automatic snapshots of from the list below. Changing this preference will not create snapshots of text that already has been assigned the status you choose. You will have to assign the text the selected status after you have enabled this preference for it to work.
Troubleshooting If youʼve gone through the documentation and are still having problems with StoryMill, weʼre here to help! For technical support, please visit http://www.marinersoftware.com/ support/. We make every effort to reply promptly, in most cases within 24 hours. We would also love to hear if you have an idea or feature request to make StoryMill better! Email us at ideas@marinersoftware.com to help us improve our software.
